


Promises to Keep

by imightbejehan



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Compliant, Comfort, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, let them talk about their issues nomura, post kh3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 08:21:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18192113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imightbejehan/pseuds/imightbejehan
Summary: “You kept your promise before, right? You can’t deny that, since you said it yourself.  So, let’s make a new promise that if anything happens, we will help each other.”(In which they finally face their fears.)





	Promises to Keep

              Through the window Ventus could see the sun rising, cutting through the grey dawn of early morning to paint the sky in lavender. There were townhouses blocking part of the view, but while the busier skyline was in stark contrast to the mornings he had spent at the castle in the Land of Departure, it felt a bit like home to him.

              It wasn’t the first morning he had watched the sunrise over a cup of tea. He had grown almost used to the feeling of weariness that settled deep in his bones after another sleepless night, and his diminishing stash of tea could certainly attest to the pattern.

              The cup in front of him was cold now, and though he refused to look at the time, he could guess that it had at least been an hour since he had refreshed it. Ven didn’t mind so much that it had cooled. Instead he found himself almost grateful as the summer heat lingered overnight to grow stronger again as the sun rose. He couldn’t blame the sticky heat for his insomnia, but it certainly didn’t help.

              There was a memory there, of sticky sweat soaked fabric clinging tight to his body to suffocate his senses. A memory of a harsh sun and an orange sky, merging with the desert dust until he couldn’t tell what was what anymore. The same way that sleep ripped the ground out from under him and he wondered if he was looking up or down.

              He blinked, and the sky was a gentle lavender once again.

              A creak sounded from the other end of the apartment, the telltale sign of the bedroom door being opened. Ven had started to prefer doors left open when he slept, or at least attempted to sleep. He hated the way it closed the room off, like a vacuum seal, like a coffin. Sometimes, it was hard to not feel like the room was shrinking in on him. But the bedroom was the only room with cooling magic, so he had resigned himself to look forward to the cooling breeze of fall.

              “Hey,” Terra’s voice was quiet, cracking from lack of use. “Good morning.”

              “Good morning.” Ven looked up to watch Terra shuffle into the living room. He flopped down onto the couch, locking eyes with Ventus as he patted the spot next to him. Ven couldn’t help but smile as he pushed himself away from the sunroom table to join him, leaving his cold tea for Terra’s warmth. “How did you sleep?”

              Terra looked like he had just crawled out of bed. His sweat pants low on his hips with one leg bunched up around his calf while the other rested frayed around his ankle. His hair was mused more so than usual, indicating that he had been tossing and turning most of the night.

              _It was probably a nightmare again_ , Ven thought, suddenly feeling bad for having left the bedroom after a few hours of failed attempts at sleep.

              “Same old, same old.” Terra reached over as Ven settled in next to him, pulling him in close and ruffling up his spikes as if to rid the worries from his head. “I managed quite a few hours though, so I’ll mark this one off as a success.”

              Ven hummed and relaxed his body against Terra’s chest. From his position he could watch the sunrise still, but with Terra’s broad chest pressed flush against his back he felt grounded again.

              They had been living like this for a while now. After Master Xehanort had been defeated, most of the group had split up again to rebuild their lives in the wake of years of pain and fighting. At first, Aqua had suggested that they all return to the Land of Departure, but Terra had been outwardly against it. Ventus couldn’t help but agree with him. It was hard to return there now; a place that had once felt like a home now seemed like a prison of memories. Instead, Terra and Ven moved into their small one-bedroom apartment in Radiant Garden to start anew. It was a home to Aqua too, when she rested in Radiant Garden, but she had busied herself as a Master now with students of her own to guide down the path of Light.

              Master Yen Sid had offered the title of Master to Terra, after it all, when they sat huddled in his tower sorting through the events. Ven could still remember the feeling of Terra tightening up beside him. He had declined, softly stating that he would be taking a break from fighting for a while now that Xehanort was gone. They had never brought up the topic again, but Ven knew from the nightmares that woke Terra up nearly every night that he was very much still terrified of himself. It took a long time for him to summon his keyblade out in the open again, without the prompting of the world ending around them.

              “How was your night, Ven?”

              “Same old, same old.”

              Terra huffed out a small laugh. Ven felt it against his hair more so than he heard it. “Did you sleep at all?”

              “I think I may have gotten an hour in, somewhere around 1 am.”

              “That’s better than nothing, I guess.”

              They lapsed back into silence, watching the sun’s rays crawl further out past the sunroom and into the living room. It wasn’t an unusual silence for them, but Ven felt compelled to break it.

              “I’m scared.”

              “Oh?” Terra didn’t offer anything else, instead letting Ven set his own pace. It was something he had grown to appreciate more so as time went on. Terra had never been a particularly loud person, though Ven remembered how talkative he had been when he first came to train under Master Eraqus. Terra had been the first to fill in any silence, but he had begun to talk less since being freed from Xehanort’s possession. He listened more often than he spoke now. It took Ventus time to get used to, but he had learned to appreciate his quiet prompting just as much.

              “I’m scared that I’ll go to sleep again and never wake up.”

              Terra’s hand paused as it carded through Ven’s hair but resumed just as quickly. If Ventus hadn’t been so attuned to his motions, he may have missed it. “That won’t happen though.”

              “How do we really know though? I mean, it happened before. Who is to say that I won’t close my eyes one day and I’ll just slip away again?”

              “But you did wake up, Ven.”

              “Yeah, but it wasn’t on my own. What if next time there is no one to help me? What if no one can help me?”

              “Hey,” Terra let go of his hair to grab Ven’s jaw, gently turning his head to face him. “You did wake up on your own. You woke up to save Aqua, and I have full faith that if anything happened then you could do it again, all on your own. But listen to me, Ven, you won’t have to be on your own. I’m here.”

              He could feel tears prick at the corners of his eyes, but Ven couldn’t look away to hide them. Terra’s eyes gazed back at him, the same light blue as they had been before, but sometimes in the low light they darkened and Ven remembered the way they had turned yellow and cold.

              “But I couldn’t wake up to save you.”

              Ventus could see the guilt build up in the lines in between Terra’s brows as they knit tightly together. He felt his own guilt well up and spill out of his eyes.

              They had only talked about it in whispers on the nights in the beginning, when Terra would wake from a night terror to find Ven sitting next to him. Sometimes it had helped him fall asleep again, to discuss the memories he relieved in his dreams; memories of chains and darkness and the feeling of blood on his hands. But they were always vague whispers to disappear as soon as they were spoken. They never let their darkness spill out into the daylight.

              “Ven, that wasn’t your fault.”

              “You can say that but,” Ven sat up in frustration, pulling away from Terra to face him front on, “but how can we ever be sure that I would wake again if I couldn’t even wake to save you.”

              “Then let’s make a promise.”

              “What?”

              Terra smiled and reached forward to brush the tears away from Ven’s cheeks. “You kept your promise before, right? You can’t deny that, since you said it yourself.  So, let’s make a new promise that if anything happens, we will help each other.”

              “You know I’m not a kid anymore, right?” Ven leaned his head into the hand that still rested onto his cheek. He felt the tension draining from him and couldn’t help a small smile.

              “I know! But, if there is one thing that we can trust in, together, its that we will always keep our promises. It doesn’t matter how old we are, or how much time has passed; whether it’s ten years or a hundred.”

              “I guess I can’t argue with that.”

              “So, promise me.”

              Ventus reached forward to mimic Terra’s pose and brought their foreheads together. “I promise that no matter what, I will always be there to help you.”

              “And I promise Ven, that I will always be there for you in return.”

              They sat, hot breath mingling together as tears began to fall down in between them. When a particularly heavy sob shook Ven, Terra broke their stillness to pull him into a tight embrace. For the first time since opening them in the Chamber of Waking, Ven closed his eyes without fear of slipping back into the darkness of sleep, and instead let himself drown in his boyfriend’s arms.

              “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you before,” Terra whispered, his voice barely above a breath. “But I’ll never fail you again. I promise you. I promise.”

              Ven grabbed at the loose cotton of Terra’s t-shirt around his waist. “You’ve never failed me. Never. I’ll be stronger now, I promise.”

              “You’re the strongest person I know, Ven.”

              “Besides Aqua, you mean.”

              Terra choked on a laugh. “Don’t tell her I said anyone but her. Our little secret.”

              Ven waited a heartbeat and relaxed slightly. He buried his face into Terra’s neck and let it muffle his voice. “I’m glad I found you again.”

              “Me too.” Terra kissed the side of Ven’s head that he could reach. “Me too. I wouldn’t be here without you.”

              “I’m sorry I took so long.”

              “You don’t have to apologize any more. It’s over now.”

              “You don’t need to apologize either then,” Ven huffed.

              “Alright, alright. That’ll be our next promise then. No more apologies for the past.”

              “Okay, but if you kick me in your sleep again, I do still expect an apology.”

              Terra pulled back to face Ven again as he let out a full body laugh. “I promise that I will apologize for the right reasons, how about that?”

              His face glistened with tears that hadn’t dried yet, but the tracks caught in the sunlight and caused Terra’s face to glow. Ven knew his own eyes were bloodshot and red, surrounded by dark circles like bruises, but looking up at the love written on Terra’s face he felt that none of that mattered.

              “Yeah, that works for me.”

              Ven pulled his face back in again, but this time matched his lips to Terra’s in a chaste kiss. It was wet from the tears still, but he felt Terra smile into the kiss, and he couldn’t find it in himself to care about wiping them away anymore.

              They stayed there, slowly losing themselves deeper into their kiss until Ventus had to pull away to yawn.

              “Okay,” Terra dropped his arms to slide underneath Ven’s legs and behind his back. Ventus caught on immediately and draped his arms over his shoulder. He placed a few kisses where Terra’s shirt collar met his neck as he lifted him up into the air. “Time to get back into bed. And I don’t want you to even think about getting out again until at least noon.”

              “Aye, aye Captain Terra.”

              Terra jostled him, pretending to drop Ven as he made his way back to the bedroom. He didn’t have a single worry that Terra would drop him, but he tightened his grip anyway and reveled in the fact that Terra was here in this moment, and he was there to stay.

**Author's Note:**

> this really was a vent fic, so it's short but i hope it's sweet. 
> 
> i was reminiscing on the height of my depression last summer, when i was coincidentally also playing through bbs again in prep for kh3. post kh3, i couldn't help but think that ven might have a similar issue with insomnia. 
> 
> i wish that we could have seen their issues explored a bit in canon, but i guess if they did then i wouldn't have any content then would i?
> 
> leave a kudo or a comment if you liked it! it's my first time writing terraven, but they've always been near and dear to my heart so i hope i have done them justice. 
> 
> you can also find me @ phantomtheives on tumblr!


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